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Congressmen like Paul Ryan Just a Different Kind of Spender

While Rep. Paul Ryan, R-WI, has been defending his cut to military retireesâ€™ pensions by saying, â€œTo be clear, the money we save from this reform will go right back to the military.â€ Ryan has defended cuts to military personnel so that he can give the savings to the Pentagon. But the Pentagon is one of the most wasteful agencies in the Federal Government.

Ryan and others â€œsavedâ€ $6 Billion dollars by cutting veteransâ€™ Cost of Living Allowance but instead of using this $6 Billion towards paying off our $17 Trillion debt, they gave it to the Pentagon to spend.

Instead of making the Pentagon live within their budget and be more prudent on how they use Taxpayersâ€™ money, Ryan and others want the Pentagon to spend more maybe even on a program to teach Afghan Soldiers how to read at a 1st Grade Level.

No sooner said then done. A recent report showed how the Pentagon wasted another $200 Million on a program to teach Afghan Soldiers how to read.

To recap: Those who voted for the Ryan Murray Budget deal in essence said, â€œLetâ€™s save $6 Billion on the backs of veterans, to include disabled veterans, and then give $200 Million to Afghan and US Defense Contractors to waste.

Before we go any further, letâ€™s look at this reading program to see if taxpayers got their moneyâ€™s worth. I will use the report, released recently from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

According to a new report on this program:

More than 50% of the Afghans participating are still illiterate.

Problems including poor tracking of students and inconsistent instruction leave military leaders unable toÂ report how many soldiers can now read and write.

The programâ€™s original goal was for 100% of the security forces to be able to read at a 1st Grade level by 2014. Now officials are saying that goal was â€œunrealisticâ€ or â€œunattainableâ€ and that the force will probably illiterate through 2020.

Why the problems? The contracts that the military issues did not require independent verification of proficiency testing, did not define what constituted a training program, and allowed contractors to bill for classes held for as little as 2 hours per month.

So who did the Pentagon and Congressmen like Ryan give your hard earned tax dollars to? The contracts were given to OTTS, a US Company, and Insight Group & HEIK, both Afghan Companies.

So how did the military decide to fix the problem? They awarded a â€œNewâ€ Quality Assurance Contract.

But donâ€™t be disheartened, another report showed that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers paid $5.4 million for shoddy trash incinerators that were delivered years behind schedule and never used. This left soldiers at an Afghanistan base with no other option than to keep burning waste in open-air pits which lead to breathing problems for the US troops. Not to worry Congress is already working on a way to cut veteran health careâ€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦